Canadian Heritage Committee on May 16th, 2019

[Martin Shields, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

That's my point, in the sense that it makes it tough. They have staff over there, but they have no money, and they're attempting to develop a program, right?

[Simon Brault]

Yes, but they have the program. The Canada Council has a program, but our program is to fund indigenous arts across Canada—

[Martin Shields, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

Right.

[Simon Brault]

—to be presented across Canada, including on the stage of the NAC in the context of the indigenous program.

We welcome that program. We think it's really important. We're investing heavily to make sure that the work that will be presented there will be of top quality.

[Martin Shields, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

Right.

I want to go back to the first part, about the money following the artists. As you said, artists are concentrated in the same places. How do you envision seeing that change? What are you doing to change it?

[Simon Brault]

What we are trying to do right now is.... Our motto is more or less “Let's not do more of the same with the new money,” so we opened up and we accepted a lot of new applicants. We accepted a lot of new organizations that now receive ongoing funding from the Canada Council, and every year we protect a significant amount—roughly half of all of our budget—for projects and new possibilities that are coming from anywhere in Canada.

This is really important, because we were at a point five years ago where the money was committed on day one and there was not a lot of room for movement. Those who were supported by the Canada Council were very happy, but there were no possibilities to enter the system. What we are doing right now is opening the system more and more. We're multiplying the entry points.

We do a lot of outreach, actually, in Alberta. In every province where we see that there is not enough support at this point, we focus the work. We kind of said to our staff, “You should spend the majority of your time not with the actual clients but with the new possible clients.” We think it's really important, because the demography of Canada has changed, and you're right that there are regions where the level of applications and the level of support from the Canada Council is too low. Our top priority is to make sure that we reverse that situation, but you cannot do it overnight.

[Martin Shields, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

I understand that.

[Simon Brault]

It's coming—

[Martin Shields, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

Are you saying that you're going to do an outreach so that groups understand the application process—

[Simon Brault]

Absolutely, yes.

[Martin Shields, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

—and understand that something is different today than it was yesterday?

[Simon Brault]

Absolutely.

For years, we were not doing a lot of outreach because there was no money to offer. It's serious. If you meet artists and you say, “Apply, apply, apply,” and there's no money to respond to the applications, you're kind of a....

There is money now. We need to spend that money, and because we made commitments, as I said, that 25% of the new money would go to first-time recipients, we need to train them on how to write—

[Martin Shields, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

Do you have it written in your strategic plan?

[Simon Brault]

Yes, absolutely.

[Martin Shields, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

Will you submit your strategic plan to us, then?

[Simon Brault]

Absolutely, and everything I said today.

All the numbers and the crunching of numbers, by the way, from people in Toronto is taken from our website because we are, I think, an exemplary organization with its numbers, and I can say worldwide, because I'm working on the world stage too—

[Martin Shields, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

Yes.

[Simon Brault]

Canada Council is very transparent with its numbers, so absolutely, we will do that. We report in a very maniaque way on how we deliver the commitments because we are very clear that with the money we receive, we need to make sure we're delivering.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Shields.

Yes, Monsieur Brault, we can see how well documented your numbers are.

Mr. Nantel, the floor is yours.

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Good afternoon, Mr. Brault.

[Simon Brault]

Good afternoon, Mr. Nantel.

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC]

Thank you for being here today. It seems to me you're having a tough time testifying because we're questioning you intensely, although I bet you were prepared for that.

[Simon Brault]

You can't keep the heart from loving.

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC]

That's exactly right. You definitely love all those artistic disciplines, and we know you have all the necessary experience.

I imagine you were prepared to answer all these questions. After all, you received a fantastic budget, which may even be a model to the rest of the world given the importance of art in society. Some people question that. I hope I'll get a chance to talk to about the cuts to the number of programs and about their substance and the impact they're having on the communities, particularly on community pride.

First of all, I'd like to say I'm uncomfortable with the questions you've been asked about funding, more specifically about the province and city of one of my colleagues on the Standing Committee of Canadian Heritage, particularly since he's on the government side. It's the same as if I were a government member and, knowing my city needed $3.5 million to renovate a cathedral, I had worked hard to bring in someone from Canadian Heritage who specifically dealt with those matters.

We all know there's no shortage of work on the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage. We've refused to discuss a number of topics that would have been entirely appropriate in the current situation, which is characterized by a paradigm shift. The entire cultural sector seems very pleased with the report on our copyright study, but it would've liked us to propose interim measures to rectify certain inequalities relative to the Internet giants. They also wanted to hear about cultural diversity and dissemination adjustment models.

As you can see, Mr. Brault, I'm giving you a break.

[Simon Brault]

You're letting me find the figures that the member from Alberta requested.